Another restaurant victim of the COVID-19 pandemic – a business started by Greek immigrants Christos and Popi Karamanos – The Greek Taverna in McLean, Virginia closed on Valentine's Day, business not good enough to meet the rent and a landlord his family said wouldn't negotiate or listen.
It had been running 28 years, noted Patch News in a feature on its closing. "It was a hard time with the pandemic and things. Business was not very good. The rent is high," Popi Karamanos told the site.
They came to the United States in the 1970s with a Greek food background, opening a restaurant in Northern Virginia before coming to MacLean.
"They really built it from the ground up, which is really amazing because they barely spoke English," said their daughter Demetra Karamanos, her parents doing well enough to put their children through college – after they waited on tables.
When it was faced with pandemic restrictions on customers, the restaurant tried to adapt with health measures and while it was busy with takeout in the summer and an outdoor patio, it wasn't enough to keep it going for good.